The Lost Khilafah

The recent unleashing of Israeli state terrorism leading to the killing of 9 innocent Turkish Muslim civilians on board the Gaza bound flotilla ship once again painfully demonstrated how the Muslim Ummah has no one to defend her or protect her.

The Turkish and Arab rulers responded in their usual spineless manner. Not a single ruler had the courage to sever all relations with the illegitimate Israeli state and release the Muslim armies to defend the Muslims.

Whether it is in Gaza or on the Afghanistan Pakistan border, the Muslim Ummah continues to be mercilessly massacred by the vicious Western powers. This situation begun the day the Muslim Ummah lost her shield, her leader, the Khalifah. It was 89 years ago this month on the 28th Rajab 1342 (3rd March 1924) that the last Islamic Khilafah was destroyed. A meeting of the National Assembly in Ankara passed a resolution that turned the Uthmaniyah Khilafah in Turkey into a secular state. The institution that represented the leadership and unity of the Muslim Ummah from the time of the Prophet (salallahu alaihi wasallam) for 1300 years was finally abolished.

Allah Subhanu wa Ta’ala ordered ‘And hold fast all of you to the rope of Allah and do not be divided’ [Translated Meaning Quran Surah 3:103]. But, since that day we have been divided into over 50 states, weak and preyed upon by foreign powers.

Allah’s Messenger (salallahu alaihi wasallam) said “the Imam is a shield” [Muslim] – but since the destruction of the Khilafah we have had no Imam to be that shield – allowing every type of predator to devour the flesh of the Muslim Ummah.

The abolition of the Khilafah followed years of decay, and decades of decline – the final act in a much longer process where Muslims stopped referring to their Deen (Ahkam Shariah) to solve life’s affairs, instead becoming infatuated with Western secular ideas.

The Khilafah had been a great state for centuries. It was a superpower on the world stage. It was a leading state in science, technology, commerce, architecture and jurisprudence.

But during the period of decline Western colonial states -Britain, France and Germany – made plans to weaken, divide and plunder it. First Napoleon occupied Egypt in 1798. Then Britain occupied it and also worked with rebellious traitors like Sharif Hussain and Ibn Saud to detach the Hijaz, Yemen, Kuwait and Iraq from the Khilafah. Palestine was occupied by the British at the end of the First World War, which laid the grounds to concede the land to Zionist terrorists in 1948. The Khilafah had been slowly cut to pieces before it was finally destroyed on 28th Rajab 1342 (3rd March 1924) with the help of the traitor Mustapha Kamal in
Turkey.

The Muslims immediately knew the implications of this, particularly in the Indian sub-continent. In a letter to the Times newspaper on 5th March 1924, Ameer Ali, one of the leaders of the Khilafat movement in India wrote: “it will prove a disaster to Islam and to civilization”.

After the eventual destruction of the Khilafah State the Western colonial powers installed puppet rulers in our countries who would continue to serve the interests of the Western powers, rather than obey Allah and His Messenger, and serve the Muslim Ummah. Decades later, it is little wonder that crooks and gangsters who usurp power such as Karzai, Zardari, Mubarak, Gaddafi, the house of Saud etc have the red carpet laid out for them in Western capitals.

Today, the Western powers who sense the growing call to remove these corrupt rulers and re-establish the Islamic Khilafah state are desperately trying to prevent this by occupying our lands and spreading malicious propaganda against the call for Khilafah. In February 2009 the Guardian newspaper revealed that the British government held the colonialist view that it is ‘extremism’ to believe in the re-establishment of the Khilafah. Only recently the retired UK army chief, Richard Dannat when asked about the occupation of Afghanistan, said; “there is an Islamist agenda which if we don’t oppose it and face it off in Southern Afghanistan, or Afghanistan, or in South Asia, then frankly that influence will grow. It could well grow, and this is an important point, we could see it moving from South Asia to the Middle East to North Africa, and to the high water mark of the Islamic Caliphate in the 14th, 15th century.”

Despite all the propaganda and war in the Muslim lands, the reality is that the Ummah is awakening and realising the true message of Islam. After the massacres in Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan, torture and detention in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and Bagram, Muslims can see the destruction wrought in the name of ‘freedom and democracy’ and are rushing to work for the re-establishment of the Khilafah.

The Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said “whosoever dies without a bayah (to a Khalifah) on his neck dies the death of jahiliyyah” [Muslim].

The Prophet (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said “A single day under a just ruler is better than 60 years of ibadah”[Bayhaqi / Tabarani].

Hizb ut-Tahrir is working night and day across the Muslim world for the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah. Our work has steadily grown over more than 50 years such that our presence is increasingly felt in Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Central Asia and the Arab Muslim countries.

This Rajab Hizb ut-Tahrir is holding a landmark international conference in Beirut, Lebanon. This conference will bring Muslims from all over the world, including politicians, journalists, thinkers, academics and other influential people to call for the historic return of the Islamic Khilafah State. This conference will aim to raise the issue of establishing the Khilafah State to the top of the agenda in the Muslim world.

We urge you, brothers and sisters, to make a pledge to join this global effort this Rajab to re-establish the Deen of Allah Subhanu wa Ta’ala, the Khilafah, so that the long awaited Islamic leadership for this Ummah returns. A leadership that will have the backbone to stand up against the atrocities committed by Israel and other Western powers, a leadership that will end the corruption, looting and incompetence of our rulers and a leadership that will stand for Islam, conveying the Dawah of Islam to the peoples of the world.

Re-establishing the Khilafah is not an issue amongst issues. It is THE most important issue for the Muslim Ummah. Every day our blood is spilt cheaply in Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir and Iraq. The Muslim Ummah is crying out for a leader who will take a stand against these brutal occupations and stand up to the oppressors. To re-establish the Khilafah we need to build an overwhelmingly strong movement within our countries that will overthrow the corrupt rulers from their thrones and bring into place a Khalifah who will implement the Shariah and stand up for the affairs of the Muslim Ummah. Join us in building this global movement.